Presently, conjugate electrical connectors come in varying shapes and sizes, but they all have primarily the same components and work in much the same way. It is not uncommon to have an application which requires a connection that can be quickly and easily connected or released without tools. A problem with using this kind of electrical connection is that, due to the build-up of corrosion and contaminants and to the limited area of contact between the terminals, some resistance is always present. The result is a wasteful loss of electrical energy as it is dissipated as heat.
One common variety of electrical connector is the conjugate electrical connector. The male terminal has a flat blade or tab for interface with the female terminal and includes means for permanently joining the tab to a conductor. Typically, the tab is joined to the conductor by crimping, soldering, welding, or some combination of the three.
The female terminal is dimensioned to encase the male terminal and, on three sides, resembles a rectangular box. The fourth side typically has a spring integrated therein to provide the force for frictional engagement between the two terminals and to prevent the terminals from becoming unintentionally disconnected.
One type of spring design used in female terminals is of the leaf spring variety. The spring is a separate piece of bowed metal crimped into place on the fourth side of the female connector, thus defining an aperture to accept the tab of the male connector. The spring presses against one flat side of the tab to force the second flat side of the tab against a contact surface defined by the side of the female terminal opposite the spring. Typically with this configuration, there are rounded protrusions on the contact surface of the female terminal for making positive contact with the tab. Since the protrusions define only line contacts with the tab, the spring force creates a great deal of pressure along the line contacts. When the tab is inserted into the female terminal, this pressure forces the corrosion and contaminants out from between the two contacting surfaces, thus making a line of positive contact.
Another type of spring design used in female terminals is formed from the same piece of material as the rest of the female terminal. The forth side of the terminal is split and the confronting end edges defined at the split are bent to provide two resilient downturned cantilevered fingers which, in conjunction with the three rectangular box sides, define an aperture to receive the male terminal tab with an interference fit. Due to the resiliency of the material, the fingers do not deform plastically when the tab is inserted into the female terminal aperture but, rather, a constant force is applied to the male tab by the end edges of the fingers. In this case, the lines of positive contact are defined between the end edges of the fingers and the confronting flat surface of the tab.